Let you in

I let you in
And you abused the position of trust
You kept me up all night
You left me with a feeling of disgust
Self blame
Was the way
That kept me astray
From opening up
You touched so deep
The innocence of my mind retrieved every moment And left you on replay
Like a scary movie
But I’m the star of the show
Years and years on end
Your body on mine
Telling me I’m a dime
But making me feel as though I’m not worth a cent
it gone
All feelings
All moments
I’m numb
You abuse me at night
But when I awake make us out to be friends
make to seem as though the rehearsal of last night
Was a make believe dream
And as though the pain not only between my thighs
Wasn’t really there
I grew the strength to untie the knot
That held me bonded to your hip
I found the power within the bones of my body
And dropped all self doubt
I took the steering wheel out of your vicious hands
And turned right
This road is my journey
Not my destination
I’m going to find my way
Just have to adjust
You abused the position of trust
When I let you in

PUBLISH YOUR OWN BOOK OF POETRY

Editor’s Note

The number one question our editors receive is—what do the editors and judges look for when judging the contest? The number one answer we give is creativity. Unlike prose, writing composed in everyday language, poetry is considered a creative art and requires a different type of effort and a certain level of depth. Of the thousands of poems entered in each contest, the ones that catch our judges’ eyes are the ones that remove us, even just slightly, from the scope of everyday life by using language that is interesting, specific, vivid, obscure, compelling, figurative, and so on. Oftentimes, poems are pulled aside for a second look based simply on certain words that intrigued the reader. So first and foremost, be sure your poetry is written using creative language. Take general ideas and make them personal. In his infamous book De/Compositions: 101 Good Poems Gone Wrong, W. D. Snodgrass imparts, “We cannot honestly discuss or represent our lives, any more than our poems, without using ideational language.”